Planning to burn Qurans, Terry Jones arrested

Polk County sheriff's deputies arrested former Gainesville pastor Terry Jones on Wednesday as he was driving to a Polk County park to burn 2,998 Qurans.

By Suzie Schottelkotte and Ryan E. LittleHalifax Media Services

MULBERRY -- Polk County sheriff's deputies arrested former Gainesville pastor Terry Jones on Wednesday as he was driving to a Polk County park to burn 2,998 Qurans.Jones and Wayne Sapp, an associate pastor of Jones, were arrested for possessing fuel in an improper container, which is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison, according to sheriff's reports.Jones, 61, has been planning since July to burn the Muslim holy books in Polk County, though he only recently relocated the event to Loyce E. Harpe Park near Mulberry.Jones said the burning was to be a memorial to Americans who died during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, with the number of books matching the number of victims who died in the attacks.But late Tuesday, the county denied his request to use the park in part saying his application came too late and in part because no burning is allowed in the park, which has no barbecue grills or fire rings.Jones was subsequently told by law enforcement that he would be arrested if he entered the park with any kind of incendiary equipment.Once they got to Mulberry on Wednesday afternoon, Jones and a handful of supporters stopped at a McDonald's restaurant parking lot to ready their mobile barbecue grill for burning the holy books. He and Wayne Sapp Jr., 44, associate pastor of his church, Dove World Outreach Center in Bradenton, doused hundreds of Qurans with kerosene, then the restaurant's manager told them they would have to leave.They did, with plans to park along the side of West Carter Road near the park's entrance and burn the Qurans there.Jones said he believed he would be arrested if he went inside the park."They (law enforcement) have told me that several times," he said while at McDonald's on Wednesday. "They told me that last night and again today. I don't think I need a burn permit to do it on the public right-of-way."He never got that far.As Sapp and Jones headed north on State Road 37, deputies swooped in behind their truck and turned on their emergency lights. Sapp, who was driving, pulled the truck into the parking lot of the Mulberry Pharmacy, and seconds later, more than a dozen marked and unmarked patrol cars crowded into the lot behind it.Sapp is charged with unlawful conveyance of fuel and having no valid registration for the smoker trailer he was towing, according to the Sheriff's Office. Deputies seized Sapp's White 1998 Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck and the smoker/trailer, and he faces traffic citations for not having proper lighting on the trailer."The unlawful conveyance of fuel charge stems from Jones and Sapp dousing and emptying kerosene into a smoker/trailer onto a stack of Qurans and then dangerously transporting the trailer onto a state road," according to a Sheriff's Office news release.Jones is charged with unlawful open carry of a firearm because deputies saw him openly carrying a pistol on his left hip in plain view at the McDonald's parking lot in Mulberry, the release said.In a press conference Wednesday night, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Jones knew the consequences for what he was doing."This was like the slow pitch for him," Judd said. "We told him 'You can't burn; it's illegal.' And he was going to come here and burn anyway."